Harlequinade | Page 3

begin your bit like a good girl."
So then Alice comes to the middle of the stage; swallows a little from nervousness, and begins...
ALICE. If you please, this is going to be a Harlequinade ... a real one. And we begin it at the beginning, which is as many thousand years ago as you like to believe. It's about how ... how ...
UNCLE EDWARD. Psyche.
ALICE. When I was young I would call her Fishy. It is all about how Psyche, who is a perfect darling ...
UNCLE EDWARD. You are not to put bits in.
ALICE. Well, she is a perfect darling. But you don't see her in the first scene. Now Psyche, who is the Soul, comes down ... whenever a baby's born, of course, a little scrap of Psyche is sent down! ... But this is how the story goes ... That she comes down from Mount Olympus where the gods live to adventure on the earth. And in the Harlequinade she's Columbine, but that only means a dove, and a dove is the symbol of the soul. And anybody who is fond of flowers knows that, because if you look at Columbine flowers you can see that they are made of doves with their wings out. And so she ought always to be dressed in blue.
UNCLE EDWARD. What's that?
ALICE. Well, I like blue. She's a restless adventurous person, and she's always running away from the other gods. For you see the Soul has need of human love, and, of course, gods that are nothing but gods can't appreciate that. Now when she gets to earth her wings drop off. And when she tries to get back to the gods, she can't until she finds another love as great as hers. For two souls that love become more than human; and when their earthly course is run (as Doctor Watts says), it gives them wings again, and back they can fly.
UNCLE EDWARD. Pretty.
ALICE. But ... to resume. Mercury, who used to spend weekends in Athens and Corinth and those places, was sent to try and find her. Mercury has to get old Charon, who is the ferryman for rowing souls over the Styx ... which is a river all the dead have to cross ... and my aunt, who's dead and full of fun ... oh, I'm sure she still is full of fun ... always said it was the most interesting place in spiritual geography.
UNCLE EDWARD. Steady! Steady!
ALICE. You told me she said so.
UNCLE EDWARD. In private. Mercury gets Charon...?
ALICE. To ferry him across. And on the earth side they meet ...
UNCLE EDWARD. Not so fast.
ALICE. They meet a Greek philosopher whose name is ...
UNCLE EDWARD. Hipponax.
ALICE. Aren't some of these names dreadfully difficult to remember. Hipponax has just died, and he is waiting to be ferried over. And it's rather awkward for him, as, when he was alive, he wrote a book to prove there weren't any gods and there wasn't any after life. And then comes Momus, who's a sort of half-god, not important enough to be rowed over, but he has swum the river as he wants to join the party. Hipponax stays to look after Charon's boat. And that's how it all begins. When the three of them get to earth Mercury's called Harlequin, and Momus, Clown; and ... But I tell you all that later.
UNCLE EDWARD. You missed out again about how Harlequin got his mask.
ALICE. Sorry! So I did. The Greek philosopher always wore a mask, so that people shouldn't see whether he was talking sense or not. For you can tell that by looking at people. And he wore a cloak all patches to pretend he was poor, because you aren't a philosopher at all unless you're poor ... there's no need. But Columbine's the nicest. You'll see.
UNCLE EDWARD. You're not to take sides.
ALICE. I wasn't. They will see.
UNCLE EDWARD. Ask George if they are ready.
ALICE. They are always quite ready when I begin.
UNCLE EDWARD. All right.
[So he takes up the large wooden mallet that lies beside his chair and says solemnly to the audience,
As in Paris.
[Then he bangs the stage with it three times. He loves this classic touch. Then he calls out to George (we must suppose), whom we guess to be the presiding genius at the "back," "Music!"
The Music begins. It is a small orchestra to be sure. But if you have two double-basses and enough fiddles on top you can manage to make the flowing of a river sound quite well. The music makes you think of the Styx (which is a deep bass, never ending, four in a bar, sort of river) before ever Uncle Edward and Alice draw you the curtains and show you the picture. Rather an awesome picture it is with the cold blue river